Believe

Chapter 7

Her fingers strayed to the necklace, fingers brushing the silver beads. So it wasn't a dream after all. She really had met a girl in a mirror. A soft mew drew Tempest's eyes the foot of her bed.

Two wide, bright blue eyes stared back at her as a throaty purr rose from the cat curled up at her feet. He was all white with a cream coloured patch between his eyes and running down his nose and his ears were tipped with the same cream colour. He yawned and stretched, kneading her blanket. Tempest watched in strange fascination as he wandered over to her and curled up on her lap, head butting the hand resting there. The girl had said she was sending a friend to her, a companion that the girl couldn't have with her. Absentmindedly, Tempest stroked the cat's soft head, trying to think of a name for her new friend. A breeze blew through her window and whispered a name in her ear.

"Neve." Tempest allowed the name to roll of her tongue and the cat butted her hand again. She smiled at him.

"Neve? You like that buddy?" Neve began to purr louder and turned to face Tempest, a look of pure adoration on his face. He stood and licked her cheek, purring. She giggled and nudged him back. He then curled up beside her and began to drift off to sleep, his purring lulling Tempest back into the clutches of sleep.

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The bing of a phone drew my attention to the kitchen table. My dad's phone sat on there, the illuminated screen taunting me. I glanced at it, surprised that my dad had left his phone at home while he was at work. When the phone binged again, I walked over to it and gingerly picked it up. I swallowed, knowing what I was doing was wrong, but I couldn't stop myself. I was hoping that the messages were from my mom.

I took a deep breath and clicked on the message. An unfamiliar number at the top of the screen stared blankly back at me. The message read:

"Hi honey. How was your day?" I tried clicking away, but I accidently clicked to read more messages. Bile rose in the back of my throat as my eyes scanned the dozens and dozens of messages from this woman who was not my mom. One message burned itself into my memory, and little did I know that I would remember it for years to come. I dropped the phone as if it had burned me and dashed from the kitchen, choking back tears. Who was this woman and why was she talking like that to my dad?

Tempest cries out in her sleep and rolls over, tears staining the pillow as another dream arises from the previous one.

As soon as my parents walked into the living room, my heart sank. Something was wrong, and I knew exactly what it was. My dad cleared his throat and directed his attention to his four girls on the couch. My heart pounded painfully as he told us that he was leaving. I started to cry silently, pressing my face to the arm of the couch, wetting the dark leather with my pain. My sisters all began to wail as the realization sank in: our dad was leaving. My sisters didn't realize the whole truth; all they knew was that their daddy was leaving. I knew the reason why, and it ripped my heart to shreds, knowing why he was leaving us behind.

"How could you do this to them?" my mom whispered venomously, tears falling down her own cheeks. My dad pressed a trembling kiss to each of our foreheads before walking out of the house we had only moved into 6 months earlier, quietly shutting the door behind him. My mom gathered all of us in her arms as we all sobbed for our now broken family. A gaping hole had been ripped open in our lives, a place that only a father could fill.

Tempest awoke with a start, pillow damp with tears, hearing voices from outside the cabin. One was clearly a woman's, and the other sounded-

"Daddy?" Tempest whispered. She threw off the covers despite Neve's startled protests and sprinted out of the cabin, heart thumping wildly. He was here! He was here for her! She gazed around, seeking the figure of her father.

The whispers continued despite Tempest's cries. The man's voice was tender and full of promises of an unending love, and the woman's voice caressed over Tempest, causing her to shiver, for it was not her mother's gentle, loving voice. Two misty figures appeared, hands intertwined, walking away from Tempest.

"Daddy? Daddy!" she cried, running after them. She received no answer as the two continued to whisper about love and their future together as Tempest ran desperately after them, bare feet slipping in the wet sand.

She willed herself to run faster, heart thumping, but her father was always just out of reach, dancing just beyond her outstretched fingers.

Daddy!" she sobbed, heavy tears obscuring her vision. " Come back! Please don't leave me!" The couple disappeared as Tempest looked out at the ocean waves from atop her cliff, sobbing.

Why did he abandon her? Did he not love her anymore? How could he choose this ghost of a woman over her, his precious Munchie? She sobbed harder, gripping her sides as she sank to her knees in agony. Why did her leave her alone, without even looking back? How could he do this to her? A knife of agony was plunged into her heart over and over again, her tormentor showing her no mercy.

"Daddy, please," she begging, voice clogged with unshed tears. "Come back. Don't leave me." When there was no response, Tempest broke down again, sobbing and screaming, begging to understand why this had happened to her, only she received no answer.

She stands on the edge of the cliff. Her pain and anger and desperation and loneliness is overflowing, nudging her towards the edge. She collapsed again to her knees in anguish, ready to tip forward and end it all, ready to embrace Death, when a gentle arm wraps around her waist and tenderly tugs her away from the edge. She turns around, still wailing, and grasps her Savior, for He has just saved her life.

She is unaware of how long she remains kneeling with her arms wrapped around the legs of the man who led her away from Death.

When she quiets down, he gently lifts her chin so she can look at his face. He is clothed entirely in a brilliant white, but his face is hazy, like his features are always gradually shifting. She looks closely, and his features fade into the same as a character in a children's book she had read when she was young. His brown hair brushed his shoulders and a bushy beard covered his jaw. His eyes were a rich, warm brown.

"Who are you?" she asks, throat dry and voice shaky. He smiles.

"I have as countless names as the stars in the sky, but you can call me Abba."